


ballerina, you must have seen her

by BubblyWashingMachine



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dance, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Ballet, Bamf marinette, Dance school AU, F/M, OH and tikki and plagg are here but as humans, Series of Oneshots, aka adrien is pining a bit for marinette because aren't we all, changing it up, dance battles, full disclosure I am NOT a dancer ahsdhfk, other characters may feature, the lovesquare dynamic is changed up a bit to keep things fresh and spicy you know
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:55:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25648438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BubblyWashingMachine/pseuds/BubblyWashingMachine
Summary: Françoise Dupont is Paris' most prestigious and elite ballet school.Marinette, a baker’s daughter who aspires to become a great ballerina, has fought and struggled for years to earn her scholarship position at the school, under the guidance of her secret tutor Madame Tikki. Finally, her dream is coming true.Adrien, the son of the incredibly famous Emilie Agreste, is allowed to attend a real school for the first time - well, ballet school at least. But while Adrien may be following in his mother’s footsteps to becoming a classical dancer, his heart truly lies with street dancing - something his father would never accept.Each night, the students of  Françoise Dupont run a secret underground club where they, and others, compete against one another in street dance ‘battles’ using disguises and personas. Ladybug, the club's mysterious prodigy reigning champion, has always danced alone, the only one without a partner. That is, until the charming Chat Noir shows up.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe
Comments: 12
Kudos: 55





	1. First Impressions: an introduction

**Author's Note:**

> Writing this for my best friend Emma :) hope you like it!!  
> This story will not be an ongoing structured narrative, but rather a series of oneshots taking place in the same universe. This is less stressful for me. I hope you enjoy this world, because I have quite fallen in love with it.  
> One last thing - on my Instagram, I have been doing illustrations for the premise of this story, the characters, etc. The art is quite nice. If that interests you then feel free to go look!  
> I also haven't used AO3 in a really long time so i've kinda forgotten how the formatting and stuff works ooooops

A good impression.

That’s all Adrien had wanted to make on his first day attending a _real_ school – granted, it’s a ballet school, but still – and yet here he is, stuttering excuses as a beautifully terrifying girl holds up a pair of ruined pointe shoes.

“Why did you do this?”

Her voice is low and dangerous. Deep black ink drips from her outstretched hand onto the glossy wooden floor. Adrien’s heart drops.

“I swear it wasn’t me, I was trying to wash it out - I would never do something like that.” He shakes his head vigorously like an idiot. Adrien knows his voice is too quiet. His hands are shaking. First day and he’s already ruined this. Chloe’s ruined this. He should have stayed home with his private instructor.

“I don’t really believe you,” She says. The other students in the class watch with horror, some turning away. “But it doesn’t matter. You’re Chloe’s friend, right?” He can’t move - her gaze, confident and searing, freezes him to the spot. “You’re probably just as much of a bully as she is.” Her voice sounds almost thoughtful.

“I’m… I’m not. I’ll pay for new ones,” he offers. Weak – it’s the wrong thing to say. The girl laughs, the sound ringing out cool and clear in the studio. She looks at him. His mouth is dry.

“You’re not using your money and your privilege to get yourself out of this, Agreste,” she spits. “I certainly see why you two get along so well. You’re _just like_ _her._ ”

She takes one step closer, and he takes one back, feeling himself hit the mirrored wall.

“Not all of us can just use money to get what we want,” she says, looking down at the ruined black mess in her hands, something in her expression changing, becoming vulnerable. It doesn’t feel like something meant for him to see. The ink, already completely saturating the once-pink silk of the shoes, has begun seeping into her soft hands, and her sleeves. “I had to fight for my place here. I had to work, and suffer, to get my scholarship, because my _family_ couldn’t pay the school to let me in. People like you and Chloe have made my life hell, you know.”

“I’m really sorry,” he whispers. She lifts her chin to look him in the eye once again, icy blue stare making his heart race.

“Don’t be. I _know_ I belong here.”

With one last glance, she turns away.

That evening, Adrien gives her his umbrella. It’s all he can do – a peace offering. He can tell she doesn’t expect it from him, such an act, her lips parting in surprise. Regret fills him - he hopes she can see it. He tells her the truth, having had the whole day to rehearse it.

At home, for the first time, he ignores Chloe’s text messages. It feels lonely, but that’s not new – words echo in his mind. _Bully._

The next day, Adrien’s pulse starts to race again – not from fear, but from something else – when he walks into the class and the girl stands there, carefree and light, so different and so scary. She is in front of the window stretching, the morning sun framing her face like a halo, her dark wisps of hair and smattered freckles highlighted in minute detail for Adrien to see and he stops, his heart in his throat. He raises a hand, shy, smitten, and curses his heart. _Why her? Why now?_

Marinette looks up at him and smiles, a little.

She is wearing a pair of pitch-black pointe shoes.


	2. Tikki and Marinette

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette chats with her mentor Tikki and has a think about the things that have changed in her life recently, as well as preparing herself for the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Weird Old Lady Tikki so MUCH

“Again.”

For the millionth time, Marinette pushes away the ache in her feet, the tired wobble of her legs, and does it again. Her instinct when leaping is to shut her eyes from fear – she forces them, open and unblinking, to stare into nothing.

_My body is a machine,_ she repeats in her mind, moving and swaying. She kicks one leg straight up into the air, spins like an impeccably balanced coin with the momentum carrying her, lighter than a feather, and leaps. _I am strong. I am brave. I am Marinette!_

She lands without a single stumble, not a hair out of place. Madame Tikki nods approvingly.

“That’s much better, Marinette,” she says, pride bubbling in Marinette’s chest at the words. She relaxes, and curtsies.

“Thank you, Tikki.”

Tikki nods happily, her wizened face knowing. “That’s enough today,” she says. “I think you’ve had something on your mind the last few days, hmm?”

Marinette flushes at the old lady’s smug expression. She can’t hide anything from the kind old woman. “There is… a new boy at my school. Since Monday.”

Tikki claps her hands, gleefully taking the box of pastries and cookies that Marinette hands her. This is the price of her tutoring three times a week. “I thought so!” She squeaks, shoving cookies into her mouth. “Mm, these are wonderful, Marinette!”

Marinette shakes her head fondly. Tikki grins.

“Now, tell me what happened,” she says gently. Marinette sits beside her and sighs.

“We had quite the rocky start. I caught him in the hallway holding my shoes, all ruined with black ink.” Tikki nods again at this. She has surely noticed that the baby pink silk had mysteriously become black. “I jumped to conclusions, because he’s ‘friends’ with Chloe,” her nose wrinkles, “so I didn’t really let him explain himself.”

“You do have a tendency to… get a bit feisty,” Tikki says cheekily. Marinette narrows her eyes. She’s known the old woman for about a year now, and she is still one of the oddest creatures she’d ever encountered. She has the spirit of a ten-year-old and the body of an eighty-year old, but the wisdom and kindness of an ancient being. One time, Marinette had asked how old she was, and Tikki had only shrugged and said “eighty, ninety, four-million-and-seventy-two, who’s counting?”

So, she’s odd. She also has a very unique big brown birthmark in the centre of her soft wrinkly forehead. Perfectly round, it sometimes gives the impression of a third eye.

“Maybe,” Marinette finally relents, ignoring her mentor’s snuffling laughter. She thinks of Adrien’s open face, and the way it turned to fear while he backed away into the mirror. The way his eyes had sparkled in the rain, and how his laugh had sounded when the umbrella snapped shut. But then she remembers the other new friend she’s made. “Oh, there was a new girl too. I think we’re friends now.”

“That’s awesome, Marinette!”

“Yeah, her name’s Alya. She seems pretty cool. She’ll probably want to join Akuma.”

Tikki inclines her head thoughtfully while Marinette steals a pastry and swings her legs. She is the only person in Marinette’s life who knows about her breakdancing alter-ego, Ladybug. She’d been the one to suggest she join the secret club named ‘Akuma’, actually, saying that Marinette needed an outlet to let herself have fun and escape from the responsibilities of the bakery and her scholarship. “Good for her.”

Marinette rolls her shoulders and breathes out, the sun beating down on her shoulders and Adrien’s kind eyes once again flashing in her mind. She can’t let herself get distracted now – she’s so close.

Soon, the auditions for this year’s production will be coming up. No one knows what it will be yet, but Rose says she thinks it’ll be Swan Lake. Everyone knows that their final performance is when all the talent scouts come, and there’s no way Marinette is going to let Chloe bribe her way into the lead role or something. This will be _Marinette’s_ chance to shine. For her hard work to come to fruition. Once she’s a famous ballerina, her dreams will come true and her parents will never have to worry about money again, and then she can marry Adrien and –

_Woah, now where did that come from?_

Tikki clears her throat, brushing crumbs off her red shawl and onto the cobblestones. “I believe you have somewhere to be…?”

Marinette leaps up, jolted out of her thoughts. “Oh! Akuma!”

Unable to believe it’s already that time of evening, and cursing her time management skills (or rather, her lack thereof) she starts hopping full force back towards the bakery, unravelling one slipper’s ribbon as she goes. Tikki chuckles. “Have fun, Marinette.”

She spins back and joyfully waves to her mentor, already looking forward to being Ladybug again. “I will!”


	3. First Impressions: again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First look at the Akuma club and its lovely leader Ladybug - as well as some new guy in all black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! A new chapter of THIS? I know, I know.

The new guy, whoever he is, dances like a wildfire. Ladybug, from her position behind the stage, watches with interest as he twists and thrashes and leaps and rolls. She is struggling to tear her eyes away.

If she had to describe it, she would say this; he throws his body around like someone who has learnt every rule just so that he can break them.

Although, it’s only the warm-ups now. The battles haven’t even started, but the new guy is taking the stage. Usually, Nino just plays some tunes while the crowd seeps in, all coloured face paint and bright clothes and silly nicknames rolling of the tongue. The partners find each other and stretch and warm up. Then, the pairs go up against one another, and then the winning team fights Ladybug, who MCs the whole thing. And Ladybug, even alone, always wins. She finds comfort in this routine.

She watches him execute a particularly charming flip and finds herself giggling. This blond guy is energetic, and it seems like his ‘warm-ups’ just mean going… crazy. It’s cute.

She notices, looking closely, that his black hoodie and silver sneakers seem brand new. He doesn’t have a partner yet, either. Some people are laughing at him – she doesn’t like that.

“Ladybug,” Nino - Bubbler - calls out. “You’re up, dude.”

She takes a deep breath and rolls her shoulders, striding out into the centre of the once-abandoned warehouse. The weight of the hot lights on her shoulders and face, threaten to sweat off her face paint, and she knows as she always does, that by the end of the night her chin and hands will be streaked with red and black. The familiar comforting weight of her yo-yo – kind of her gimmick, like Stormy’s umbrella - rests on her hip.

She can see Reflekta, Stoneheart, Stormy Weather, Evillistrator and all her other friends right at the front. They wave at her, and she notices a new face looking out eagerly. A girl, with brown skin and red hair, wearing an interesting black and white crop-top and heavy black eyeshadow – it must be Alya. _That was fast._

“Good evening everyone,” she begins in a cool, confident voice. Ladybug is special – unlike stressed-out Marinette, who is constantly having to prove herself, Ladybug has no weaknesses and she _is_ the best of the best, and she knows it. At the call of her voice, the crowd silences immediately, big eyes and mouths gazing up at her adoringly, and she loves it. She loves this. Even the new dancer, the one in black and silver, seems to read the room. Ladybug breathes in deeply, and the usual scents of rubber, paint, and dust swirl through the air, soothing her. “How are we all?”

Cries of ‘good’ and ‘amazing’ surface, and Ladybug nods, pleased. Tonight has a really strong energy, maybe because of the new additions to the club adding a sense of excitement and anticipation.

“All right,” she calls, turning in a circle to look at everyone. “As you’ve probably noticed, we’re got some fresh meat in the crowd today, so I want you to give it your all and _totally_ show off, okay?”

Laugher swells, and Ladybug grins. She sees Dark Cupid pump a fist with an enthusiastic ‘WOO!’

Her eyes find the boy in black in the audience. Of course, this speech is for him. His upper face is rimmed in thick black face-paint to hide his identity, big green eyes gazing up at her in awe. Cute. He looks kinda familiar – maybe she’ll recognise him when she gets closer.

She climbs up to Bubbler’s DJ platform thing and gives him a thumbs-up.

“Are we ready?” Nino yells into the mic.

Everyone squeals their assertion. Ladybug closes her eyes for a second and relishes in it, the pure joy of them all.

“Are you sure?” She asks, in a low, teasing voice, making eye contact with the new boy, whose bright smile widens impossibly further.

The crowd screams yes.

The air is warm and sweet, a buzz of anticipation, euphoria, excitement bubbling in her chest.

She throws her arms out wide. “ _Then let the Akuma Battles begin_!”


End file.
